I wrote the report for another site, but thought it would be good to post it here as well to link it from the Faerie Stompy thread and so on. I never wrote such a long report, so I hope you guys enjoy it. Cheers for reading!

Introduction
It's quite a long since I last wrote my last report, but I think introducing one self is a good starting point. I am Pablo Giner from Spain, most known as Djinn on #magic-league and on the magic world. Last year I only played one in real life event, and this year I decided it would be GP Madrid with a deck I have been using since 2005 and decided to buy from a friend once he decided to quit MTG (it was because of me he bought the cards in the first place, thinking the deck was as great as I told him it was!)
http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=5466
http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=5453

It is such a long time since those trials, but I have played Faerie Stompy in all my legacy events (both in real life and online) since then and I was quite happy I had a GP in my country (just 5 hours bus away from my city). However, I finished my exams the week before, and I was so tired I almost skip the GP in order to go out partying around and so on. It was because of a friend of mine who insisted so much on going I finally opted to attend, sleeving up the deck I had not played in real life for quite a while already. The list is as follows (I had to buy Back to Basics there as they were still the Winter Orbs)

Tournament Report:
As you probably know, GP Madrid has been the largest in all the history of Magic. 2228 players showed up to play making it the longer GP ever held. Day 1 would consist of 9 swiss rounds with all the 7-2 or better record doing day2. Day 2 would consist of 8 swiss rounds (2 more than usual given the large amount of people). I so wanted to start playing, but it wouldn't be until midday or so I started playing round2. Here is a sort-of-detailed description of how my matches went

r1 Bye
Thanks to my total 1900 rating :)
Total Record: 1-0

r2 Gonzalez, Justo [ESP] playing Hypergenesis (2-1 win)
Game1 I kept a goldish hand vs aggro, 2-3 beaters, a piece of equipment and some acceleration if I recall well. No Force of Will, but you can't ask for everything. My Serendib Efreet plus Sword of Fire and Ice was beating him down but just when I was about to make lethal damage to him (my life was 17, his life was 6) he sacrificed his 3 fetchlands and played Violent Outburst. Up to that moment I had no idea what was he playing, but definitely I was not expecting Hypergenesis to show up in legacy. He deployed Eternal Dragon, Progenitus, Pale Recluse and a Simic Sky Swallower. All I got was a lousy Serendib Efreet. He chumpblocked my Serendib Efreet with his Eternal Dragon, untapped, went alpha strike and no matter who my Serendib Efreet blocked I'd be down to exactly 1 life, so I'd die because of my own Serendib Efreet. My jedi mind trick of “well, you have no blockers so if I attack I just win” did not work and we moved to game2. Game 2 I had by turn3 a Chalice of the Void for 0 and he scooped. I thought it was because he didn't have any artifact removal in his hand and I had some beaters in play. My surprise came when in game3 I went trinket into chalice, playing it for 0 and he conceded again (by turn2!). He was not expecting chalices in legacy... He was more an extended player and actually went there just for the PTQ next day, but wanted to try out Hypergenesis with duals in legacy. I asked him why he was not playing Jungle Weaver over Pale Recluse but he was happier about the landcycler. He scrubbed out some rounds later, but he almost made t8 next day in the PTQ.
Total Record: 2-0

r3 Gromoff, Quentin [FRA] ANT (2-1win)
As expected, ANT showed up very early in my GP travel. I thought I'd be playing this deck way more than I did (actually I only played once versus it). I knew the match-up was slightly favourable as I had tested versus it quite a lot on magic-league. I can't quite remember perfectly the games, but game1 he scooped to a Sea Drake when he was on 16 life because I had a chalice for one online. Game2 I couldn't do anything to his starting hand. Mine was Force of Will+blue card+Chalice of the Void+2 lands+1 beater (nice mull, isn't it?) but his t1 Duress (which got countered with my Force of Will) + Lotus Petal+ Thoughtseize followed by turn3 Ad Nauseam got him the game. Game3 I kept a hand with no blue mana but a couple of Chalice of the Void and proceeded to go t1 Chalice of the Void for 1 and 0, pass. His face showed he was unhappy about that and he probably was even more unhappy when I drew another Chalice of the Void and tried to cast it for 2 (shutting down his most likely removals -Echoing Truth or Hurkyl's Recall). He obviously responded to it using any of those and I just replayed one of them for 0 (I couldn't set the other for 1, but I was safe with him not being able to cast 0 or 2 cmc cards). His version played Infernal tutor and Sensei's Divining Top, which he played before I got a blue color mana source. As soon as I drew a threat he conceded (even though he was on 20 life!)
Total Record: 3-0

r4 Rgw Gobs Zunko, Bojan [SVN] (1-2 lost)
Definitely a favourable matchup. However, I lost the roll dice. This meant that my Chalice of the Void for 1 only made a difference game2, which I won easily. The first game was close enough, in spite of me not drawing any equipment piece. He needed some beaters to race me apart from the crappy goblins he had in play (Goblin Matron and some other guy). Therefore, the turn before I could attack for the win he played Goblin Warchief and double Goblin Piledriver for the win. Too bad any equipment piece would have given me the match, but that's magic. Game 2 was easy starting off a Chalice of the Void for 1 and then some beaters that ate him quite quickly. Game 3 I had Serendib Efreet, 2 Islands and an Ancient Tomb. I played Sea Drake+Trinket Mage when his table was 3 lands, Goblin Lackey and Goblin Piledriver. I had Ancient tomb+2 Islands, so I couldn't have gone Trinket Mage and Chalice of the Void for 1, as I had to first play Sea Drake, bounce Island and Ancient Tomb, play Ancient Tomb and play Trinket Mage. These Ancient Tombs moves dropped my life way too low, but you need to play beaters if you want to outrace the little green men. What I didn't expect was his Pyroblast+Gempalm Incinerator on his turn on my two untapped blockers which enabled him to lay off Siege Gang Commander via Goblin Lackey for the win. I actually could have not attacked with Serendib Efreet, but giving goblins more turns would have worked against me (ringleader/matron/piledriver etc.)
Total Record: 3-1

r5 Canadian Threshold Gimenez, Victor [ESP] (2-1 win)
Another slightly favourable matchup. I lost game1 to triple Nimble Mongoose and weak draws on my side. Game 2 and game3 were won on the back of chalice for 1. I think that's the matchup where I played almost nothing game1 and my opp had no idea what my deck was (in spite of cycling Cloud of Faeries and playing Sea Drake) and he sided in Choke game2. When I beat the hell out of him game2 with all my artifacts he swapped them for some Krosan Grips, but game3 chalice for 1 with a Force of Will on his Force of Will gave me the match. After the 3rd game he revealed a hand full of Stifle/Red Elemental Blast and the like. I so love Chalice of the Void :)
Total Record: 4-1

r6 38 lands Piatkowski, Dominik [POL] (2-0win)
Game 1 I start with a Chalice of the Void for 1 and a Chalice of the Void for 0 on the play. He plays some Wastelands and stuff but my beaters get good hold of him. Game 2 I don't have such an explosive start, he plays t1 Exploration and t2 Crucible of the Worlds with lot of lands in his hand. Eventually a Maze of Ith stops my only beater, Sea Drake. A Pestermite enables the drake to get through once. Next turn he attacks with two Mishra's Factories and says pass. I point out my life is 13 (17-4) rather than the 15 he had noted down. He asks if he can play some stuff in his turn, which gets a negative response. He says 'well, it doesn't matter'. In my upkeep he blows my Chrome Mox with a Krosan grip, but I had a second Pestermite in hand to tap his Maze of Ith and swing to get him to 2 life with 3 beaters, so he concedes. Had he played Krosan Grip on his turn, my next mana source was in years time, so probably he would have won
Total Record: 5-1

r7 UW Weenie Lopez, David [ESP] (2-0win)
Before this round started I got to say hi to Rodry, who appeared by the event to greet some of us. Before entering the arena I left him talking to someone unknown to me until we sat down to the table and I brought up how he met Rodry etc. My opp was superlopez on magic-league and he was playing the UW Weenie with Aether Vial, Standstill, Serra Avenger and the like. I crushed him badly, my draws were just superior to his and equipment shined on that matchup. We played a few games without sideboard afterwards and he won 3 games in a row. Too bad they did not count.
Total Record: 6-1

r8 Bant Order Brea, Jorge [ESP] (0-2 lost)
Finally I got to play to one of the most popular decks in the GP. I was actually afraid it wouldn't be such a good pair as the crappy Bant builds with Rhox War Monk and Counterbalance which are dead cards versus me, and it turned out it wasn't. His build was more aggressive and he resolved a Natural Order game1 (t1 Noble Hierarch, t2 Trygon Predator, t3 natural order) to outrace me for just a turn (I had a double Sword of Fire and Ice draw). Game 2 I mulled and a couple of Tarmogoyfs gave him the match. I was in a tight spot as I needed a win to get to next day.
Total Record: 6-2
r9 Naya Zoo Hernández, Sergio [ESP] (2-0 win)
Another extended player who showed up borrowing a few duals from friends and managed to do well. That explains pretty much why sub-optimal builds of Zoo were around all day, their pilots just adapted the extended build into legacy. I played Chalice of the Void both games for 1 and the rest was an easy candy, also I think he didn't keep the best possible hands. He actually complained he kept a 1-lander in game2 and after drawing 2 lands in a row he argued he should have mulled the hand. I wonder how is it possible to keep a 1 land 6 business spells, get 2 lands and complain about the hand.
Total Record: 7-2

Conclusion:
I expected a good performance from me and the deck, but making the cut in such a huge tournament was actually not that clear at the beginning of the day. I was pretty happy about how the GP was going so far and was confidant on making a good record on the second day. The swiss rounds ended before midnight, but it took us a little while to get to the hotel, take a shower and get to sleep (we ended up going to sleep at 3 a.m.).

Introduction:
After sleeping for 3 hours and a half, we had to wake up, pack our bags and leave them at the hotel before taking the underground to the venue. We did not book a hotel room for the night from Sunday to Monday as we expected to be done by the end of Sunday and we were able to catch a bus at 1 a.m. if the GP/PTQ worked out well for us. We got to the place 5 minutes before 8 a.m. (they said we had to be there at 8) and obviously the doors were not even opened and weren't for another half an hour. We sat down, signed some stuff and started playing our day2 swiss rounds (usually 6, but this time 8 due to the large amount of players)

r10 Bant Survival Baauw, Dennis [NLD] (1-2lost)
I won game 1 easily, game 2 I mulled and he played some early beats that outraced me. Game3 I played a Chalice of the Void for 1, countered his Survival of the Fittest and played 2nd Chalice of the Void for 2. He had the Engineered Explosives to blow up my first turns plays and another Survival of the Fittest to follow up and just won the game. His hand consisted on these 3 cards and 4 lands, so if I had gone for the aggressive route I might have won (Force of Will on 1st Survival of the Fittest and just beating him) but I thought it was safer to shut down all his outs with my Chalices of the Void before deploying my threats.
Total Record: 7-3

r11 Canadian Skornik, Denis [SVN] (0-2 lost)
I was a little bit on tilt after losing that game, so adding the lack of proper sleep, I was not in a winning mood. Game1 I mull and see no Chalice of the Void, so his Lightning Bolts acting as removal and his double Force of Will beat me up. Game2 we were low on cards, at which point I could have played Chalice of the Void for 1 and then Sea Drake protected to go for the win, but I opted to go for the Sea Drake first thinking he was holding Krosan Grip, which is a huge misplay versus Canadian Threshold anyway. He obviously had the Pyroblast and kept attacking me with his Nimble Mongoose or whatever his creatures were. This round was a fast one so I went for some breakfast and a coffee. I would have dropped if I didn't have enough time as I was angered at my poor performance on the second day and to this misplay that costed me the chance to win the game and fight for the third game.
Total Record: 7-4

r12 Naya Rodriguez Reyes, Carlo [ESP] (2-0win)
r13 Naya Cuartiella, Albert [ESP] (2-1win)
The breakfast and the little break from the GP place put me back on the winning mood, and a couple of Zoos were easy to deal with. I can't quite remember these matches, but given they are favourable matchups, there is nothing special to talk about these.
Total Record: 9-4

r14 Naya Rois, Andreas [AUT] (0-2lost)
I mulled both games and had not a good hand versus Zoo this time, so he basically trampled me over with his little beaters and some Pyroblasts game 2. Too bad I was 3-0 vs zoo in the GP and I lost this match, but in so long a GP you actually even lose to favourable matchups. As you can see, the last 3 Zoo matches are the only ones I don't remember the details about, as playing that matchup is so boring. Next time I should write some notes about my matches, but I was not expecting I would be writing a report.
Total Record: 9-5

r15 Elves Romero Gallardo, Josue [ESP] (1-2 win)
Game 1 I had a gold start on the back of t1 Sea Drake t2 Sword of Fire and Ice and equip, so I couldn't see much from his deck apart from a couple of elves. I sided accordingly but mulled twice game2, in which he went t1 Llanowar Elves, t2 Elvish Archdruid and t3 the feared 2GG card: Garruk Wildspeaker. I wonder how this guy got to day 2, as he actually was not even that good a player and his deck was obviously poorly built (no natural order, are you kidding?). I didn't draw a blue source so he just won with the beast tokens. Game3 I got a regular hand with a creature turn2 and a equipment turn3 and won easily. I would have shot myself if I had lost to this guy.
Total Record: 10-5

r16 RGw Aggro Loam Karlinski, Anton [DEU] (0-2 lost)
That was the fourth RGW deck in a row. I was sick all through the second day (colds suck) and tired to hell. Game 1 I played Chalice of the Void for 1 which didn't bother him deploying Tarmogoyfs all around and he finished off the game with a Seismic Assault. Game 2 I mulled down to 5 and could do nothing to beat him in a longer game than what I expected. After beating me he dropped, which sucks, specially given I might have made top64 if I had won this and the next round netting me $200.
Total Record: 10-6

r17 Canadian Threshold Nicolis, Marcello [ITA] (2-1 win)
I lost a game where he played the full set of Stifles. The card isn't exactly great against me, but definitely slowed me down as he countered Cloud of Faeries triggered, Trinket Mage triggered on the next turn, the attach from Umezawa's Jitte once and the triggered from Umezawa's Jitte next turn. His Nimble Mongooses stole that game. Game2 I had the Chalice of the Void start which means good game versus Canadian and before game3 I see he re-sideboards, to which I ask if he's bringing the Krosan Grips in and he smiles. Game3 I got a fast start and a Force of Will on his removal which finally made up for the total 4-4 on day2.
Total Record: 11-6

Conclusion
I was not happy about playing in real life any more lastly, but this event showed it is fun to eventually attend a large tournament with some friends and play in it. However, such a large tournament was too tiresome for me and day2 lack of sleep, the misplay on the 2nd round, the cold and everything else ruined the fun at some points on Sunday. I don't regret assisting though, but at some points I doubt if it paid off all the bothers and time invested on it.

Eldariel

03-01-2010, 10:07 PM

Nice finish at any rate; you got into the top half of the day 2, which is pretty hard in such a massive field. Sucks to hear about condition affecting performance on day 2, but I guess that's how it always goes with these massive two-day events. Did your finish get you into money?

Anyways, I woulda definitely played 3 Sowers maindeck over the mishmash you had, and most likely still ran Mulldrifters over Clouds (I love drawing cards), but not sure how much those would've impacted things either way. Sounds like the difference between 11-6 and 15-2 > Top 8 was mostly in technical playing along with getting unlucky at few points.

I'm really sad I failed to attend now; sounds like it would've been a great field for the deck. Ah well, c'est la vie. Maybe next European Legacy GP will be in Helsinki (here's hoping).

Waikiki

03-02-2010, 02:01 AM

It was nice playing you.

I think landing chalice @1 and @2 was the correct choice which would indeed shut down all my outs. Its not that usual we play explosives side.

unicoerner

03-04-2010, 09:06 AM

Hey, as i first wtached the list i asked myslef why you didn`t include 2 of the best faerys... Spellsputter and 3/1 discard.
I read your whole tournament report and to me it seemed that your sttrongest cards were your artefacts. Why didn`t you play some creatures with a n1 effect? You had access to them but did`t choose them. What`s the reason behind it?
3 Mana 2/1 prot red flying?

I am new to Legacy and you will have good reasons to play these creature. I know of all the red lightning effects, but swords helps there aswell.